Merry Christmas! Now back to business

The ignored monogrammed undershorts from Aunt Bessie remain half-opened under the tree awaiting return trip to the store or cyberspace.

The outdoor lights, for some reason, just don’t seem as bright anymore.

Christmas Day is history.

Hope yours was a wonderful day!

The Rampage enjoyed a great first period Saturday night in the Toyota Center, a place where Rampage teams have gone to die. They’ve had some stellar moments there this year– scoring goals quickly and had arguably their all-time best rally, scoring 6 unanswered goals after falling behind 3-0 on December 3.

Then, came the letdown, and thanks to the sound play of Justin Pogge in goal, the Rampage hung on for a 4-2 win.

Oddly enough, guys who’ve been struggling to score, Kyle Turris and Brett MacLean, were offensively active and guess what? The team won the game!

Turris has seven points against Houston, only one the goal he scored last night. According to Dan Weiss on the air, it was a quick snap shot that simply overwhelmed Anton Khudobin, who has inexplicably lost seven straight.

But Rampage fans need to see more of Turris shooting. He has probably the most accurate zipper on the team. Would be nice to see it on display more often.

MacLean’s game is one of scoring around the net — aka, the Phil Esposito Syndrome. He’s not one to lug the puck, shoot and score. He’ll jam rebounds and if he’s left alone for any amount of time around the crease, it’s usually a good thing for San Antonio.

So the combination of Mac, Turris and timely scoring from young and still excited rookie Matt Watkins, the Rampage were successful in Houston.

Now, if they can only score on the Texas Stars — a team that seems to have their number this season. The new AHL club has outscored SA 12-3 since a 3-2 Rampage win in the Stars’ inaugural game in the AT&T Center.

Sharp Guy

Nice article on newest Rampage forward, MacGregor Sharp on the league website:

http://theahl.com/staying-sharp-in-a-whirlwind-season-p139675

So good to see when someone makes an impression outside of the usual path (draft) to the NHL.

Sharp has played in Bakersfield (ECHL) scoring 14 points in 12 games there, and skated in 8 games with the Anaheim Ducks before landing here.

“It was pretty nerve-wracking (playing in the NHL). You dream of it as a kid. It was definitely nice to get a few games in there with the Ducks.”

Undrafted out of college, Sharp signed with Anaheim as a free agent. Ok, just read the article online, but his skills will come in handy since—–

Hoggan and Porter Recalled by Phoenix

With team captain Jeff Hoggan and Kevin Porter getting a nice present from Don Maloney, Coyotes GM, aka Santa, and with Joel Perrault still out with an ankle injury, the rest of the club is going to have to really pick it up offensively against a team, Texas, that has limited the red light illumination.

For Porter, it’s been a crazy week. He was recalled on Tuesday, returned on Thursday, and is once again up in the Desert after former Rampage forward Daniel Winnick was placed on injured reserve.